The Intimacy Institution
by IKilledMyDogLastNight483
Summary: Aoba Seragaki recieved a mysterious invitation to a weird place, called The Intimacy Institution, where challenged, experienced or interested individuals can explore their sexuality, learn score tricks etc. Aoba accepts and shows up to the mysterious château, where the principal, Toue, seems to be hiding something from the rest.
1. Chapter 1

**The Intimacy Institution**  
><em>Chapter 1<em>

Aoba Seragaki held the invitation in his hand as he sat in his car.

"The Intimacy Institution – For sexually challenged, experimenting or interested beautiful people".

'What a silly name for an "institution"' Aoba thought to himself.

He wasn't really sure why he had said yes to go to that kind of place. It's not like a real college, you don't get real subjects like math and language, but, as far as he had researched, it was all about discovering yourself and feeling confident about your own sexuality. Not like he'd ever had problems with that in the past, but it was also a place to learn how to have a good time with a partner, how relationships last longer, and finally, how to score. Aoba was a bit interested in the latter, since he hadn't been on a date with a girl in years.

He'd heard the place was pretty good for a, let's be honest, sex school. His good friend, whom he'd known since he was little, Koujaku, went there, and had been there for a year already. He had no problems with the ladies, though, and it was probably to learn some new moves to impress girls. Aoba didn't say much to it; he could do as he pleased.

He put the paper back into the envelope and put it back into his bag and exited the car. The wind blew silently leaves of all colors around the giant building: a grand château from the 1800th century fenced by a brick wall with black, stylish poles on the top for the look. The building itself looked old school and beautiful, with towers, sections of halls and tall windows. It was obviously a bit more modern inside. Exactly how much, was Aoba finding out soon enough.

He walked up to the giant double door; it seemed it was the original one. He opened it up carefully, afraid that he maybe should be there, but he clenched his bag with the envelope tighter and entered the building.

The first thing he noticed inside was a beautiful chandelier with crystals hanging from the ceiling about two stories above his head. Then he took a look around and was astonished: it was a giant hall with a mild color for the marble floor and half of the walls, topped off with clean white walls. Pillars of light wood stood around the huge staircase of marble and bronze in the middle of the room. It looked sophisticated and well considered, because it made him feel like he was in a royal castle somewhere in the country side. He saw archways to both sides of him, almost everywhere, and he wondered where all those might led to. And more importantly: where was he supposed to go from here?

"Ahh, Aoba-san, welcome to my humble establishment," a reassuring voice said behind him. He turned around and saw the owner, Tatsou Toue, stand there, supported by a cane and monocle. He offered his hand out and Aoba politely shook it.

"Hello, nice to meet you. It's a beautiful place you've got here, Toue-sensei," Aoba said and smiled to him. Toue was happy that his lifework was being noticed, and nodded.

"Thank you. I spent a lot of money renovating this place. It was a nice little project, but I hope to do much bigger things in the future, than running this little institution," Aoba noticed a hint of disgust in his voice when he said the last part, but thought he shouldn't comment on it. Toue collected himself and said with a joyful voice: "So, let's go to my office so we can have a little talk before you get to settle in," He led Aoba up the stairs and to the right.

They stepped into a nice little office, bronze with dark wood. It was as sophisticated as the hall, but in a different way. Toue gestured toward a chair in front of his desk before sitting himself down by it. Aoba bowed slightly and sat down.

"So you like my place here, that's always a good thing," Toue began. "You might be wondering why you were sent an invitation to this place, hmm? Most other people here have paid a respectable amount of money to be able to be here, but I personally arranged for you to come here without paying up a single yen. Do you have any idea why?" he then asked. Aoba was caught a bit off guard by the question, but he saved it.

"My guess is publicity? If I am here, people will hear about your place and come running here," he answered. Truth be told, he had wondered a lot to why HE was selected and why, but it actually seemed logical enough now when he said it aloud. And he was a relatively wide known guy after all.

"That is correct, my friend. You see, we had a little bit of trouble filling up the spaces this year, so a little bit of advertisement wouldn't hurt at all," Toue said with a smile. Aoba got the idea and promised he would recommend the place to everyone who might be interested.

"Now, you do know that the kind of education here isn't normal. We don't teach school things, rather things about romance, relationships and trust. I'm sure you already know that by now?" Toue asked. Aoba nodded.

"And we have a strict policy, rule if you like, that 'no' always means no. Anything you're unwilling to do is totally fine, and you will not be judged. However, the more you practice the, ahem, teachings, the more you've already learned. And besides, the attendants here are all perfectly fine in looks and behavior, so should a more… intimate subject come up, it shouldn't be a problem, am I right?" he said in a weird tone. Aoba nodded again. He'd read all of this on his coil as soon as he got the invitation. He needed to know what he was getting into.

"I don't think I would mind, so that's fine," he just said.

"Great we're on the same page, Aoba-san. Now, about your route…" Toue began.

"It's okay," Aoba said. "I already got the papers from the secretary. I'll be on the heterosexual route along with the 14 other males, in room 23. I got it under control, Sir," he said confidently.

"Yes about that, Aoba-san, there has been a slight necessary change in the plans…" Toue said, but was then interrupted by a knock on the door.

"I'm very sorry, Aoba-san. Come in," he called. In the door stood a secretary in all purple clothes and brown hair. She looked to be around 40 years of age.

"I'm very sorry for interrupting, but Sei-san…" she was quickly interrupted, because Toue stood right up.

"I'll be right there, Yoshie-san. Please take care of our guest here in the meantime. I'm awfully sorry, Aoba-san, but I must go now. I hope you understand," he said apologizing. Aoba shook it off and gave him a reassuring smile. Toue exited the room, and Yoshie smiled at Aoba.

"He will be back again by tonight I think, but I see you've already got what you need," she said in a friendly tone, and Aoba nodded. The woman signaled for him to follow her, and he did. Aoba told Yoshie, that he was going to room 23, and she gladly led him there.

This place was huge. It was supposed to hold over 170 people, even though, as far as he'd checked, there only were 154, with him included. These people were all put into groups called routes based on their sexuality, so for example homosexual men didn't have to learn about how to pick up women.

There were 30 on the straight route, where he was placed. 15 men and 15 women. It was a good system, also so, if needed, all could find a partner.

Then there were 30 women on the lesbian route and 30 on the gay route, then a mix of 15 women and 15 men again on the bisexual route, again, so everybody could team up.

And lastly there was the asexual/pan/trans route with 30 people as well. Aoba wondered why it was even needed, but then again he didn't know much about asexual or transsexuals, so he kept his mouth shut.

There were also 4 people who didn't belong anywhere, maybe they had a hard time trying to figure out which to choose, but as far as Aoba knew, they were only gonna cooperate in very few of the routines. Besides, he only needed to focus on his own route.

In his mind, Aoba noted the path from the great hall to his new room. Up the stairs, to the right, then left at the end of the hall, and then look for room 23, one of the rear ones.

He bowed to Yoshie when he stood outside his door, and she hummed joyfully as she walked back to the secretary. He sat down the bag he had around his shoulder to reach for the key Yoshie gave to him before. He put it in the lock and unlocked the door. Then he opened it.

"WAAHH!" a female voice was loudly heard as a young woman screamed and fumbled around her. She lay on top of a man in a bed by the window of the giant room, and was only wearing her underwear. The man sat up quickly to see why she was making such noise, and looked towards the door while his girlfriend tried to find something to cover herself with.

Aoba stood hypnotized, and didn't know how to react. The man in the bed widened his eyes, and was about to yell, when Aoba recognized his reddish brown hair and white tattoos.

"Mizuki?" he asked and the man's face calmed. He then started to laugh in that laughter Aoba knew so well. Aoba scratched his neck while he smiled an awkward smile. He was then pushed backwards by the woman from before, slim, a bit pale and with long blue hair.

"**GET OOOUUUUTT!**" she yelled at the top of her lungs and smashed the door while Mizuki still laughed his butt off.

Aoba stood outside of the door and had no idea what just happened. What were they doing in his room? He had to find out what was going on. But strange how he knew the person who lived there. He giggled to himself as he walked back to Yoshie's office. At the funny scenario, at the way the girl reacted, at Mizuki's laughter. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding, and Mizuki had the wrong room. No matter what, he was getting to the bottom of it.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Intimacy Institution**

* * *

><p><em>Hello, wonderful people. I'm IKilledMyDogLastNight483 (and just so we're clear, no, I did not kill any dog ever) and I'm from this weird little country in Europe that doesn't have English as its first language, so if my grammar or my wording sucks, you know why etc. etc.<em>

_So this is The Intimacy Institution, glad that someone actually READ it. I'll update as often as I can, even though I have school and other things to attend to as well. I like reviews and messages, feel free to ask about anything. Alright alright, read ^^_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 2<em>

"What do you mean there's no more room on the heterosexual route?" Aoba asked Yoshie when he reached her office. He'd walked straight to her after he apparently went wrong in Mizuki's room.

"It is as I said. All male spaces on the heterosexual route are occupied, so we had to move you to another route," the secretary said extenuating to the upset man in front of her desk.

"Then what route is that?" Aoba asked.

"The bisexual one," Yoshie answered. _The what?_

"There must be some kind of mistake, I'm not gay!" Aoba said stubbornly.

"_Bisexual_, Aoba-san," she corrected. "We tried our best to get you a satisfying route with the rooms we had left. If you don't like it, then maybe someone on the homosexual route might want to switch?"

"N-no no, no need for that," Aoba then said. "I'll take the room. Sorry for the trouble Yoshie-san," he bowed deeply, but Yoshie shook it off and smiled at him.

"Don't worry about it, Aoba-san. Come, let's find you your room," she said, and Aoba followed her out of the office.

* * *

><p>"Here we are, Aoba-san. Would it be okay for me to call you Aoba-kun?" Yoshie asked as she handed him the key when they stood outside a room for the second time. This room was on the third floor on the right side, room number 92, the second one from the hall, so easy to remember.<p>

"Sure, whatever you like," Aoba said politely. He was really ashamed of himself, the way he acted earlier, so he wanted to be nicer to her from now on. She seemed to be fine with it though.

"Great. Now, if you need anything, you know where I am," she said and went back to her office once again.

Aoba let out a relieved sigh, because now he was finally alone. He turned the key in the lock and a click was heard. He opened up the door and switched the lights on as soon as he entered.

What a place. The room was huge with giant windows on the opposite side of the door and a view over a lovely garden. A crystal chandelier, a smaller version of the one in the hall, hung from the ceiling and lit the entire room up. On the right side was a big round king-sized bed with pillows and covers of all shapes and sizes nicely placed around it. On the left side there was a big wooden desk that looked extremely expensive, and next to that a walk-in-closet behind nice white slide doors. The walls were painted white with a tint of pink in it, and it fit very well in with the white furniture and dark wooden panels. It was truly exquisite, and Aoba was almost hypnotized by its completion.

He walked inside and sat his bag on a comfy chair in the middle of the room. He looked around to look at everything and checked the closet out. It had all types of clothes: jacket, shirts, pants, even caps. But what surprised Aoba was that they all were in the same white color with blue lines all over it. He guessed it was probably a kind of uniform they had to wear, so he put out a pair of sweatpants, a blue tank top and a jacket out so he could wear them in the morning. He opened another door and saw a shining bathroom. Literally, it was so clean the countertops and porcelain objects shone with an almost unnatural light when he turned on the light. It had shampoos and soaps already, even some for a bubble bath for the bathtub. He closed the door carefully again and went back to the big room.

It was getting darker outside, and he noticed he was very tired. He took his shoes, jacket and pants off and put them in his bag and then threw himself on the big bed. It was super soft, and he felt like he was flying. He wondered a bit why they were _that_ soft, but was too tired to think more about it. He double-clapped and the lights turned off, and then he dozed off to sleep.

* * *

><p>Aoba was gently awoken in the night by some noise coming from outside of his window. Singing? In the middle of the night? Aoba's room was still very dark, but he was afraid that if he turned on the lights, the song would go away. He lay perfectly still and listened carefully to the song from outside of the window.<p>

"Sway, sway, swaying in between the waves," he heard. It sounded so beautiful, almost like a dream. Then it suddenly stopped, and Aoba looked out of his window. Only the moon was visible in the night, so he lay down again and fell back asleep.

* * *

><p>At exactly 8 o'clock in the morning he was woken up by a message on his coil. Or rather, an alarm clock he didn't set up himself. <em>Wonder if this place hacked into my coil or something. <em>He sat up in his bed and looked down at it. It showed a little panda-thing who spoke:

"Good morning, Aoba-kun! Welcome to your first day on the Intimacy Institute. Hurray!" confetti and fireworks blew up around it, and it danced around a little before it continued.

"You and the other attendees are going to meet up in the cafeteria area on the 1st floor to the right or left – you decide! – of the stairs and then just follow the signs, it is the easiest thing! Be sure to wear the clothes from your new closets when you're not in your room! ~  
>In the eating area you will have some DELICIOUS breakfast and meet up with your route mates, isn't that great?" <em>I guess?<em>

"You will also be briefed on where you have to go from there; you will receive a schedule and be shown around a little, yay! The real program won't start until tomorrow, so you have time to get settled in and get comfortable around your new route mates. You're gonna need it!" It winked and jumped around a little more.

"That's all! Remember: at 9 in the eating area, see you there!" it finished and then the coil turned black again.  
>"What a weird panda…" Aoba mumbled to himself, but then got out of bed and went to the pure white bathroom. He took a long warm bath and felt amazing when he got out. He then dressed himself in the clothes he found yesterday. He took a quick glace of himself in the mirror, ruffled the long blue hair a bit, then picked his bag up and left the room.<p>

* * *

><p>"Down all the stairs, then either to the right or left side…" Aoba mumbled when he reached the bottom of the stairs. He was a bit nervous that he might not be able to find it, but then he saw all the signs put up everywhere, and that calmed him some. He walked fast as he turned right and around the corner, but then he felt something hard.<p>

"Ow!" he said, and then looked up. He'd just walked into some dude! How embarrassing.

"I'm very, very sorry, I wasn't seeing where I was going, and…" he began, but then took a better look at the man he'd almost run over just now. He was only a bit taller than Aoba, and pretty slim. He had blonde hair and a weird green hat that matched his black/white/green outfit. He looked like a walking fashion disaster, even though it also looked kind of cool. He looked directly at Aoba, who could now see all the piercings in his face.

"It's fine," he said emotionless.

"But I just rammed into you, didn't it…" Aoba began, but was interrupted yet again.

"I said, it's fine," He then walked away again, in the opposite direction of everyone else, but Aoba only thought about how he could still walk. He had run into him full speed; he even humped a tiny bit himself now. But he decided not to think too much of it, after all he wasn't in uniform anyways.

* * *

><p>The cafeteria was huge. Like really huge. The panda was right: no matter what way you went, you would find it. It was the whole back of the château and filled both the first and second floor, where a small balcony was set around the walls. The style was, you guessed it, as sophisticated and unique as the rest of the place, and it was simply breathtaking. Light from the outside shone through the great windows and lit everything up crystal-like. Aoba stood for a whole minute and just took in the details of this incredible place. Then he noticed that there were people already gathering by the tables around, so he figured he might want to find out where he was supposed to sit.<p>

The room had 4 big and long tables in the middle that stood 10 feet from each other and then 2 half their size to the left side of the room. On the far right wall stood a long table with food of all kinds, from Japanese to American to Italian to Scandinavian.

Aoba was starving, and ran up to the table immediately and filled a plate with all kinds of food: soft rice and a soy fish sauce, bread filled with cheese and ham, pancakes as thick as his hand and a weird round pastry that tasted like chocolate and rum. He looked around, and it didn't seem that people sat by their routes, but just wherever they wanted. That gave him a chance to sit by whoever he wanted, and he thought he might go find Mizuki.

Mizuki sat by one of the last tables by a bunch of other people. He had his arm around the girl from yesterday, who clung tightly to him. Aoba came up to them and Mizuki waved at him.

"Aoba, hey!" he said cheerfully. The girl in his arm turned away from Aoba with a loud 'hmph!', obviously still mad at him from yesterday.

"Oh yes, this is Usui, my, well, girlfriend, but you already kind of know that," Mizuki laughed, and Aoba smiled a bit, mostly just to be polite. The people at the table started whispering, and Aoba felt extremely uncomfortable.

"Uhm, you don't have room for one more, do you?" he asked awkwardly.

"Oh, sadly no. Sorry, Aoba," Mizuki said with a sad expression, but Aoba waved it off.

"It's fine, I'll just see if I can find Koujaku," he said and walked off. As he looked around, he could hear laughter from the table behind him, but he didn't want to let it get to him.

"Aoba! Over here!" he heard, and he turned in the direction that the voice came from. Koujaku sat by one of the big tables and patted a spot next to him. Aoba smiled and went to sit down by his friend.

"Big place, huh?" Koujaku said with his usual playful tone.

"Hell yeah, it's huge," Aoba answered and began eating his food. The panda was right; it really was delicious.

"So, on the way here I saw a scheme of our routes, you know, one with the names on, and I couldn't help but notice you weren't on the heterosexual one? Like, if you're not into that, you can just tell me…" he started awkwardly, but Aoba stopped him.

"No no no, it's not like that! They were out of space, so I'm on the bisexual route," he explained, and Koujaku nodded understandingly.

"Oh, I see. That's why you're wearing that symbol-thing, isn't it?" he asked, and Aoba looked down at his jacket and noticed a little badge with a male/female symbol on it. He looked at Koujaku, who was also wearing the blue set from the closets with a male symbol on it. _I see, the heterosexual route._

"Yup, that's it," Aoba answered with a grin.

"Sure you wouldn't want to try the homo route out a bit?" Koujaku joked, but Aoba shoved him.

"Shut up, you hippo!"

"I was only joking," he said and smiled sincerely. Aoba softened and took a bite of his bread.

"Uhm, excuse me?" they then heard a deep voise say. They turned to the stranger, a young man at about Aoba's age, who stood in the obligatory blue holding a tray of food. "Can I sit here? The other seats are mostly taken," he asked.

"Sure, sit down, pal!" Koujaku said, and the young man nodded. The two moved aside and the man sat between them.

"I'm Ren, homosexual route," Ren said and shook both the men's hands. As he was beginning to eat, Koujaku sent Aoba a weird look behind his back. Was it because Ren was gay?

"I'm Aoba, and this is Koujaku," Aoba said to Ren and smiled at him. Koujaku remained silent for now.

"Nice to meet you two. I see you took the pancakes too, Aoba-san?" he said and pointed at Aoba's tray.

"Yes I did, they're my favorite," he said. "You can just call me Aoba if you want," he added. He wasn't really a big fan of all the formal pronouns, since everyone was equal here after all. Equal clothes, equal tables, equal rooms with equal facilities…

Which reminded him:

"Hey, did you guys hear something yesterday too?" Aoba asked the two. They just looked weirdly at him, like he was talking backwards.

"I didn't hear anything..?" Koujaku said, and Ren nodded along.

"There was singing? Something about swaying,"

"There was no singing, Aoba," Koujaku repeated. Was he going crazy? Or were the others?

* * *

><p>"Ladies and gentlemen!" was heard loudly throughout the room, and all eyes went to the balcony. Toue stood there and held a microphone in his hand.<p>

"Welcome, all, to the Intimacy Institution. A place where everyone, regardless of their sexual preferences – or lack thereof – can explore themselves and each other through our experimenting program and educated teachers. Flyers of the programs here for the different routes can be found on your way out of the cafeteria, in Yoshie-san's office or on your coils, and you will always be told in time where to go next. The staff and I wish you all a nice stay here, and of course, if you need anything I will be at my office," Toue said and then disappeared from the balcony. A wonderful song with violin and piano then came on the speakers, and the background noise of other people talking returned.

"Hmm, thanks Toue-san. You wouldn't run this place if you could do something else, huh?" Koujaku mumbled mockingly to himself, and Aoba spoke:

"He said he would want to run something bigger someday," He remembered that from Toue's office. Koujaku was about to answer, when Ren suddenly tensed up.

"Uh-oh…" he said silently.

"What's wrong, Ren?" Aoba asked, and Ren pointed a person from the crowd out.

"My twin brother…" he said, and just as he did that person turned to their table and waved at them.

* * *

><p><em>Yeah, this chapter was pretty long compared to the first one, but I had so much to write about ^^ Hope y'all like it, byee<br>_


	3. Chapter 3

**The Intimacy Institution**

* * *

><p><em>Hello, sweety pies! I'm sorry for updating so late, I've just started school again, so it might take longer before I update again. But I work as hard as I can so I can update this fic as often as possible ^^ thanks for the many nice reviews I've gotten, it just totally makes my day! If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, you can also PM me, I love to talk ^^<em>

* * *

><p>Chapter 3<p>

Blue hair, yellow eyes, and a crazy grin taped to his face.

"Hello, oniisan," he said to Ren as he stood next to the table. He was wearing normal clothes, not the uniform, and it was a jacket in cold colors and with headphones around his neck. Ren didn't look happy about the situation, even less so when his brother spoke again.

"We always sit together, brother. Aren't you gonna introduce me to your new friends?" he asked, and Ren pointed to Aoba and Koujaku and introduced them. Koujaku was out of words; he didn't know the guy, and he seemed really creepy. Aoba lifted his hand to the new person and smiled.

"Nice to meet you. So you're Ren's brother?"

"I am. Sly Blue, but just call me Sly," he said and winked at Aoba, who blushed a bit at the awkward gesture.

"Just sit down already, Sly, or you'll make a scene," Ren said impatiently and pulled Sly down in a chair next to Koujaku. Sly sat sloppily down and started eating his food, rice and dry meatballs, very slowly, using his fingers. Ren sighed loudly and was obviously embarrassed by his brother. All Aoba thought about was how they looked almost nothing alike. Ren had black-ish blue hair that almost reached his shoulders and a mild face that looked like he was thinking hard about something all the time. Sly however…

"Uhm…" Aoba was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Koujaku stutter awkwardly while looking hard at Sly.

"What? Did the cat steal your tongue?" Sly asked and grinned mockingly.

"You and Aoba… You really look a lot alike," he finally said, and Sly took a long glance at Aoba and then giggled again.

"Yeah, you're right. Oi, Aoba. I get that I'm cool, but you don't have to pretend to be me to get some of this," Sly said, and as Aoba turned his head towards Sly, he'd gotten up to Aoba's seat, bent down and…

"Eh?!" Aoba burst out when he felt Sly lick his cheek. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Hahahahahahaha!" Sly laughed so he couldn't even breathe and sat down in his seat again, still giggling.

"You..!" Koujaku said, and looked like he was about to get really angry, but then Ren came in between them and bowed deeply.

"I'm very sorry on my brother's behalf! If there's any way I can make up for it…" he began, but Aoba, who was still a bit surprised at the whole scenario, stopped him.

"I'm okay, it's okay, Ren," he said, and Ren relaxed a bit. Sly still laughed, and Koujaku looked like he was a second away from shoving him, but Aoba sent him a look that said 'Don't', so he didn't. Apart from Sly's laughter, the rest of the meal went on in silence with stares from the other tables.

* * *

><p>"I swear, next time I see that bastard he's really gonna get it!" Koujaku cussed to himself after they'd left the cafeteria, but Aoba elbowed him in the side.<p>

"Don't, I'm alright. I just feel bad for Ren, he looked so embarrassed by his brother earlier," Aoba said and thought about how Sly had embarrassed them during breakfast. Ren had looked as if he wanted to dig a hole and hide in there forever.

"Yeah, you're right… Is it just me or was he staring a lot at me during breakfast? Like, was he coming on to me?" Koujaku asked with a weird tone.

"No he wasn't. Just because he's gay doesn't mean he wants to get into everybody's pants, you know," Aoba said annoyed.

"No, I know, but he's still a bit… you know," Koujaku said.

"Oh, don't be a homophobe, Koujaku. You'd still be friends with me if I were gay, right? Not that I am, but hypothetically," Aoba quickly added.

"Y-yeah, you're right. Sorry," Koujaku said, and just as Aoba was about to answer, they heard someone call behind them.

"Aoba, Koujaku!" the deep voice called, and they turned around to see Ren come running towards them. The white jacket with the homosexual route's green stripes on it was expanding and contracting fast; Ren had run fast.

"Again, I'm terribly sorry for my brother, he's nuts," Ren said worried while trying to catch his breath. "If there's anything I can do to make up for it, just the least, please tell me. It's just that we've always been together, mostly me trying to hold him under control, but also for him to scold me for being too serious," he explained.

"Really, Ren, it's fine. I was just surprised, I guess," Aoba said scratching his neck. It had been extremely awkward before, but now he just wanted to calm down a bit. "If you want, later me and Koujaku are going to find our friend Mizuki and do something, so you're welcome to join," he said smiling, earning raised eyebrows from Koujaku, whom he stabbed back with his eyes.

"I'd love to join. I'll make sure to keep Sly away this time," Ren said and bowed.

"Yes, that would probably be best," Koujaku added, but Aoba broke in.

"No, he's welcome too if he wants. If he can act nicely that is?" Aoba said the last like a question for Ren meaning: '_can_ he act nicely later?' and Ren nodded again and bowed even deeper.

"Thanks, I'll do my best. I'll see you then," he said and smiled at them, and Koujaku and Aoba turned around to walk away.

"See?" Koujaku hissed.

"What? What is it now?" Aoba asked irritated.

"He's totally looking at my butt, that little faggot..!" he said, and Aoba was getting pretty pissed with him now, when Ren called out to them.

"Uhm, Koujaku?" he asked cautiously.

"What is it? If you want a date, then look somewhere else. I've got the _straight_ badge, see? You know 'straight'?" he said and pointed to his badge on the white set of clothes.

"It's not that, Koujaku. You have something on your pants, I think you sat on something," he said. Aoba bent down to look at the back of Koujaku's pants and it had a dark red stain on them.

"He's right, you've sat on some jam from the cafeteria," Aoba concluded and sent Koujaku a mean look. 'Apologize!'

"Oh…" Koujaku blushed deeply. "I-I'm sorry, Ren-san," he stammered, but Ren smiled and held up his hand.

"It's fine. I know you're on the straight route, Koujaku, so I know you're _way _out of my league," he said sarcastically and winked at Aoba, who was struggling to contain his laughter. Then he walked up the stairs towards the homosexual route's rooms and disappeared.

"Hahahahahaha, Koujaku!" Aoba laughed, and Koujaku, who looked like he'd been terribly burnt, just pouted on their way to his room.

* * *

><p>"I couldn't possibly have known he was the prince of sass, now could I, A-o-ba?" Koujaku said pissed while Aoba sat on his bed and laughed his ass off.<p>

"Haha… But you gotta admit: it was a pretty cool comeback," Aoba said, drying some of the tears of laughter from his eyes. Koujaku was not amused and Aoba who was now calming down walked over to Koujaku who stood by the open window and smoked a cigarette. As he breathed the smoke out, he spoke:

"Ahh, my only vice…" Aoba hugged his shoulders from behind and leaned on him.

"One of many," he said and giggled. Koujaku decided not to take it as an insult and leaned back a bit into Aoba's embrace.

"We've known each other for a pretty long time, huh?" Koujaku said and took a deep breath of the cigarette.

"We sure have. Since we were both small and cute," Aoba laughed and let go of Koujaku to join him leaning over the edge of the window.

"I didn't know you were coming here where I've been for a year already. I'm glad to have known you for such a long time," he spoke sincerely and looked at Aoba who was now blushing a bit.

"Uhm, you too, Koujaku. Hey don't go all gay for me, will ya'?" he said after a short break and pushed Koujaku lightly while laughing. He went back inside the giant room and threw himself back onto Koujaku's bed.

"No, that's not what I meant," Koujaku stammered and followed Aoba, sitting himself down on a chair next to the bed. "I know," Aoba says just to clear up, but Koujaku knows.

"I still can't believe we go to the same institution. I didn't think it was for you?" Koujaku asked.

"I was offered an all-inclusive stay, so I thought: 'why not?'. And it might be good for me, to meet new people, maybe even 'the one'. Not to sound cheesy or anything," he added, because it would almost be too good to be true if he met his soul mate at some weird institution.

"Yeah, maybe. Now that you _are_ on the bisexual team, you might meet a male version of 'the one' though," Koujaku smirked, and Aoba shoved him.

"You'd like that wouldn't you? Not going to happen," Aoba shook his head and Koujaku laughed.

"Maybe we should get going? Ren and Sly are waiting for us to pick them up and go to Mizuki's," Aoba then said and ignored the forced look from his friend.

"Come on, they might be cool to hang out with, you know. And if you're not careful you might end up falling for Ren," Aoba giggled and winked at Koujaku who was now blushing deeply again.

"Let's just go," he said and pushed Aoba off the bed and out of the door.

* * *

><p>"Hey Copycat and Cow-jackass! Over here!" Sly called out to Koujaku and Aoba when they were in the main hall where they said they'd meet up. Koujaku already tensed up, but Aoba seemed to be handling it fine. Sly stood in the obligatory uniform with red stripes instead of Aoba's blue and a badge with a big red cross on it. <em>So the asexualpansexual/transsexual route, huh? _But he stood alone.

"Hello, Sly. Where's Ren?" Aoba asked him, and surprisingly Sly's mood dropped a bit.

"My brother's not feeling well, he has a heart condition, you see, so he won't make it," Sly replied seriously, and Aoba suddenly felt very guilty for thinking bad about Sly because he seemed so reckless, and also for making Ren run after then earlier, which probably sparked it.

"Will he be okay?" Koujaku asked before Aoba could.

"Yeah, he just has to rest in his room," Sly answered and then gave them a smirk. "Guess we're gonna have all the fun without him," _Aaaaand that's Sly again._

They decided to go to Mizuki's room to pick him up for lunch soon. Aoba showed them the way; he'd already been there after all. _That is gonna be a funny story to tell someday._

Suddenly Aoba stopped again and listened carefully. _Was that..?_

"_Sway, sway, swaying in between the waves,"_ There it was again!

"Shh, listen, guys!" Aoba said determined and the others kept silent.

"What… is that?" Koujaku stammered, and Aoba jumped 10 feet when he felt something on his shoulder.

"AHH, WHO'S THERE?!" he shouted and turned around to see a big scary gas mask stare back at him. "WHAT THE HELL?!"

"Ah, Master! I heard your voice, so I came," he gasmask said with a happy voice, and Aoba felt like he was going to faint.

* * *

><p><em>Hope you all liked the chapter, please review it for, that would mean a lot ^^ bye byeee<em>


	4. Chapter 4

The Intimacy Institution

* * *

><p><em>Hi guys! Christ, I'm SO sorry I didn't update sooner, but I've been so busy the past week that I didn't have time to write! But yeah, hopefully you remember what happened in the last chapter? Yeah, Clear popped up and scared the crap out of Aoba... And so it continues... ^^<em>

* * *

><p>Chapter 4<p>

"Aoba? Are you okay?" Aoba heard a familiar voice call. When he opened his eyes again, he was supported by Sly's arms, because his feet had almost slipped under him. Koujaku stood in front of him with a worried look on his face, and beside him…

"Master? Please don't be dead~!" the gasmask called out and came _really_ close.

"W-who are you?!" Aoba blurted out without thinking about being friendly first. He just wanted him to get the newest weirdo out of his face.

"I'm Clear, bisexual route. Just as yourself, Master!" the man sang, but Aoba still couldn't speak.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I scared you, Master!" he then said and took a step back to let Aoba get some space. He stood up on his own feet, relieving Sly from holding him. Koujaku looked suspiciously at this 'Clear'.

"Then why don't you take off your mask instead of scaring the shit out of people?" He held his hand out in front of Aoba in protection, even though it was totally unnecessary.

"No!" Clear then yelled. "I can't! I've been told not to," Sly started giggling to himself, something Koujaku and Aoba had stopped caring about after a while.

"You guys here with your faces. Here we have a copycat, a scarred ninja and now a gasmask? Are we on some kind of mission I don't know of?" Sly laughed loudly, only finding it funny himself. Koujaku's face went red, so Aoba felt like he should defend Clear. Also for Ren's sake.

"It's fine. If you don't want to, you don't have to," he said friendly and smiled at him. Clear clapped excitedly; you could almost see the stars and flowers float around his head.

"Thank you, Master!" he cheered.

"Oh, by the way, I'm A…" Aoba began, but was then interrupted. By a bell?

"Ohh, lunch!" Clear was thrilled, as read by his voice and the way he hopped up and down. Without another word he turned around on his heels and walked downstairs towards the cafeteria. Oh, a lunch bell. Aoba was about to call out to him, but Koujaku shook his head.

"Don't worry about that airhead. Let's go find Mizuki," He took Aoba by the arm and a giggling Sly followed the two as they walked the last short trip to Mizuki's room.

* * *

><p>"Wanna join us for lunch?" Aoba asked happily as the trio stood in Mizuki's door. The latter was in white sweat pants and a purple tank top for the heterosexual route, and the room was dark. He scratched his neck and let out an awkward laugh.<p>

"Ohh, this is kind of embarrassing, you guys. I just made plans with someone else, and later we're gonna go out, so…" He apologized and said he wanted to make it up to them, but Koujaku interrupted him.

"It's okay, Mizooks. We'll just see you later," Mizuki waved at them and closed the door.

"No worries, guys. We'll just eat by ourselves," Aoba said trying to cheer them up, but the atmosphere was still a bit lousy from the rejection. They all went to the cafeteria downstairs, Koujaku and Aoba walking next to each other and Sly walking behind them and hiding a grin behind the hands put up in front of his face.

* * *

><p>"So, Kayak-Jack. You've already been here for a year, eh? Tell us your secrets," Sly pushed when they sat by the same spot as they had in the morning. The room was crowded with people who'd been here since the bell rang or hadn't even left. The breakfast table had been replaced with another one; one for lunch. All kinds of hot and cold dishes were lined up in color order, starting with red pepper and tomato salad, and ending with purple crab cakes on black caviar. Aoba had filled his plate with as much as he could, even though he'd only come to green on the scale, and sat now between Sly and Koujaku so they wouldn't freak out on each other.<p>

"It's _Koujaku_. And there are no secrets you won't learn about in the classes," he tried explaining, but Sly wasn't satisfied.

"Not that, Blowjaku, I don't care about the classes," he said. Aoba was guessing it was true, since he was on the a/trans/pansexual route. He wondered what they were going to get taught there at all.

Sly leaned closer to Koujaku behind Aoba and spoke: "Do people fuck each other for money here, do heteros go gay, do the straight people dunk the bis' heads in the toilets? Spit it out!" Sly sounded so excited, and Koujaku's face went all red.

"Why, you!" Sly had pulled back to his seat, and Aoba had to hold Koujaku from jumping him. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Don't freak out on me, my brother's sick, you know," Sly completely changed attitude and spoke in a sad voice. Koujaku's anger seemed to slowly dissolve and he sat back down. "That's right. I'm sorry," he said in an apologetic tone. Sly only giggled in response.

"To your information, no one dunks anyone's head in a toilet, thank you very much," Koujaku responded irritated. Aoba was a bit relieved at this: not that he was afraid of being bullied, but he was happy no one else was bullied (so he had to help them out).

"What about prostitution?" Aoba asked. The two others looked at him with a weird look. It wasn't like him to ask that kind of thing.

"Uhm, not what I've heard of," Koujaku answered hesitantly. "Although…" Sly leaned closer to Koujaku and focused all his attention on his answer.

"I've heard that some people on the asexual route sometimes do services for money. I don't know if it's sex or favors with money, or what it is. Besides, they're mere rumors," he added the last part, and felt pretty uncomfortable when both Aoba's and Sly's eyes were on him.

"Don't tell me you're going to see what you can buy from them, guys," Aoba, who had spaced out for a moment, suddenly woke back up and shook his head.

"No, no, that's not it. I just wanted to know what kind of place this is," he assured, and Koujaku sighed with relief.

"Oh, hoped so. At least you're not some weirdo," he said and laughed the awkward situation off. Sly, who'd been silent for a while now, then spoke:

"Well, if you guys aren't going to check it out, I sure am," he said with a bit of an offended tone. Koujaku then felt bad for indirectly have called him a weirdo, but didn't think much about it. After all, it had been Aoba's idea to invite Sly to lunch, not his.

"Then let us know how it goes," Aoba said and sent Sly a kind smile. "You bet," Sly nodded. The pack continued their lunch, which was as delicious as the breakfast had been. Meanwhile Koujaku sat and pointed a few of the people he knew out, and told the others a bit about them:

"Mizuki's girlfriend over there, Usui, was here for 2 months last year as well. She's on the heterosexual route, as you can see by the color of her uniform,"

"Wait, so you can have partners while you're here?" asked Aoba.

"Yes, sure. It's your private life, so they can't prevent you from seeing anyone. There is only one route you can't touch, though," Koujaku explained in a serious tone.

"Let me guess: the asexual route?" Sly asked, sounding a bit bored. Koujaku had been talking uninterrupted for a long time, and Sly was losing his patience.

"No, not them," Koujaku pointed to a small table closest to the door. "The ones without a route. Some call them The Factionless, The Unclear, The Doubtful, pick your favorite,"

Aoba and Sly turned their eyes to where Koujaku had pointed, where four people were seated, and the first thing they noticed:

"They aren't wearing a uniform?" they said in unison. Koujaku nodded.

"They've come here, but haven't decided on a route yet. They're with a special team who helps them select one before the first two weeks, or they get expelled,"

Aoba looked closer, and saw a familiar face in the group.

"Hey, the guy in green rammed into me this morning!" he exclaimed, and now Sly woke back up.

"Want me to give him the same treatment?" he grinned as he clenched his knuckles together. Aoba quickly shook his head.

"I was wondering why he wasn't wearing a uniform, but I guess they don't need it after all," Aoba stated, and Koujaku nodded. They decided to finish their food quicker, because Sly said he had to do something important afterwards.

* * *

><p>"I'll see you at dinner, Aoba," Koujaku waved at them both as he returned to his room. He wasn't sure if Sly was going to join them, so he wouldn't want to include him in a promise.<p>

"Sure," Aoba waved back, and now stood with Sly near the exit of the cafeteria. As soon as Koujaku was out of sight, Sly turned around and started walking back to the tables with food. There were still lots left, but it was getting a bit cold from standing out for a few hours.

"What are you doing?" Aoba asked when he saw Sly pick up a new plate and start filling it with food. "Are you still hungry?"

"It's for Ren," he said in a very serious tone, which surprised Aoba. He really cared for his brother, didn't he?

"Want me to help you?" Aoba looked around for anything Sly hadn't already taken.

"You can bring him some water," he said unsurely, so Aoba grabbed a jug. What was he feeling right now?

"Are you sad about your brother?" Aoba asked with concern in his voice, but Sly laughed it off.

"Nah, he's fine. He just needs to rest. Be careful not to drop that thing, or it'll break to a million pieces," he added when he saw Aoba's insecure grip on the glass object. He switched hands right away, and thought about why he was so careful about not dropping it. The two left the eating area on tiptoes, just in case.

* * *

><p>"We're coming in, Ren," Aoba said after knocking Ren's door. The gay route's hallway and rooms were just like the other ones he'd seen so far, so it didn't seem they treated some routes better than others. What a nice idea.<p>

Aoba opened the door with his free hand, for both Sly's hands were occupied at the moment. The room was completely dark, with only a few beams shining through the curtains. There were pillows and covers all over the floor, and a little ball of blankets and duvets sat in the middle of the floor, taped to a funny machine, while looking at a projection from a coil on the wall. It was obviously Ren, but he looked so different from this morning: he was pale, looked tired, and had a mask over his mouth. Poor thing…

"Hey, oniisan," Sly greeted cheerfully, as if it was nothing, and when Ren turned to the two, Aoba was surprised by the look on his face. He smiled.

"Hi, brother. Hi, Aoba," his face lit even more up when he saw Aoba come in too, but the latter was still a bit stunned by Ren's face. How could he look so happy in this state?

"I gave him a bit of medicine and left him with my coil," Sly nudged, and as far as Aoba could see the coil had been used to display an animal show on the wall like a big theatre screen. But it seemed he was too tired to actually watch it, though.

"We brought you some food, Ren," Aoba said and pointed at Sly's plate. Ren smiled from ear to ear, and unwrapped himself from his fort of softness. Aoba sat the jug of water down on the table in the middle of the room and helped Ren to a chair. He had a bit of trouble walking, but he made it without falling.

"When will it wear off?" Aoba whispered a bit concerned, because Ren's posture was about to collapse in the chair, which was kind of unsettling.

"I'll put him to sleep when he's eaten, then it'll be gone till he wakes up. He doesn't usually get something that strong, but his condition has worsened the past few months, so he needs something else to take the pain," Sly explained as he sat the plate down in front of his brother and put the chopsticks next to it.

"Thank you for the food," Ren chimed, and picked up the chopsticks to eat. Meanwhile, Sly had found a straw for the jug, so he could drink easily. Aoba had to admit: he felt a bit creepy for just staring at Ren while he was eating. Of course Sly didn't seem to have a problem with it.

"Are you going to be okay?" Aoba was worried now, so he felt he had to ask.

"Yes, it's not severe," he smiled. "I'll be fine by dinnertime, so I can join you guys," The last part was more of a question like: 'Can I join you for dinner?'. Aoba nodded fast.

"Of course! Sly can join too. Koujaku will be there too, but I'm not sure about Mizuki,"

The two told Ren about the past hours; about the Gasmask guy, Clear, how Mizuki almost straight up rejected them, and what they'd talked about at lunch. When they were done talking, Ren had finished eating too. Aoba offered to take the plate and jug back to the kitchen, so he said goodbye to the two and left the room with a nice feeling. He liked those two.

* * *

><p>Now the four were back together again in the cafeteria, and sat by their 'usual' table. Koujaku was in a particularly good mood, Ren was well again, and Sly was, well, cheeky as ever.<p>

"But have you seen how those guys make up to her? They're a second away from each building her a nest of gold nuggets, and throw rocks at each other," he grinned and eyed three young people, where the two boys seemed to flirt a bit excessively with the girl.

"They're new. The girl's name is Mio, and the guys are Kio and Nao or whatever the hell they're called," Koujaku explained. He was seated next to Ren, and for once didn't look annoyed by it. Most of the time they'd had a long conversation about animal shows on different channels, and they seemed to be getting along fine. Aoba heard Sly complain about how his room had no heat, so they need to get it fixed before he could sleep there. To be nice, Aoba offered to share his room with him for a couple of days, but Sly (thankfully) thanked no, because he just 'crashed with his brother'.

"What about that girl over there?" Ren asked and pointed to a girl with long blonde hair and a pink bow that was sitting a few tables away.

"That's Clara, heterosexual route," Koujaku explained, but was then cut off by Sly, who burst in.

"She's mighty fine, isn't she?" he smirked, and Koujaku blushed a little.

"Well, if you're into that kind of girl," he mumbled and stuffed his mouth with delicacies from the dinner menu. It was even more spectacular than the lunch and breakfast combined, and every bite bombarded your taste buds with new sensations. From bread, fish, and beef to vegetables, potatoes, and sauces were lined up and ready for serving. They all ate to their hearts' content, and were totally stuffed within 30 minutes, and it was getting late.

"Want to hang out tonight?" Koujaku asked, and as much as they all wanted to, they knew they needed to get some sleep before tomorrow. They said goodbye and split up, so Aoba was left on his own to find back to his room.

But first, he looked a bit around the entrance hall again. It was such a beautiful sight, that he couldn't help but stare at every little detail.

_Thud._

Huh? He heard something, didn't he? He turned his eyes from the chandelier in the ceiling, and to the floor, where he saw a little package with a string, that seemed to have fallen out. Did someone drop it?

The second he'd thought of that, his eyes caught a guy opening the front door, so he hollered at him.

"Hey, you!" he called, and the man stopped his action.

"What?" he said in a dark voice, and barely turned his head to look at Aoba.

"I think you dropped this," he said and picked up the package from the floor. The man in the door turned around and walked towards him, and Aoba could see his face now. It had a dark color, a bit like Mizuki, and a big nose. He had long brown dreadlocks that were red at the end, which matched his white and red uniform from the asexual route. Wait…

"Are you one of those who sell people stuff?" he asked, but the man didn't answer. He stood a few feet from Aoba, who was surprised how tall the man really was.

"Go to bed," he simply said and yanked the package out of Aoba's hands and dropped it on the ground.

"But isn't it yours? Is it someone else's you're only holding on to? What other kind of stuff can you get? Are there oth…" He was cut short when he received a fist to his shoulder. It hit him so hard, he took a few steps back, and gasped for his breath.

"I said: 'Go to bed', so leave it alone," he repeated blank faced and went out of the door. Aoba rubbed his shoulder and stood back up straight. That guy… He left the package on the ground like he was told, even though it bothered him why anyone would even leave stuff in the middle of a hallway. He humped a bit, but made his way back to his room safely.

* * *

><p>Ahh. It was nice to be back, and away from all the other people. They were nice and all, but he liked being alone for now. He took off his clothes immediately and put on a simple top that he could sleep in. He sat down on a soft chair by the window and checked his coil. He received a message from The Intimacy Institution, probably tomorrow schedule, but he was too tired to read it. But he also received another message from and unknown sender. He shrugged and opened it up.<p>

He heard a song, like the ones in old 8-bit games, and then an old game layout popped up. What kind of retro thing was this? How could a coil even run it? It showed a little film of a knight, who rode a white horse to a big castle, which he then entered. Inside were lots of little people, who all cheered for the castle's king. Then it changed to a brick wall, where there was a heart shape, but the heart was missing. Then it was over, and closed itself down. That was weird.

"… come on, we haven't got all night!" someone yelled. It sounded very quiet in Aoba's room, so it must have come from outside. Aoba looked out of his window and saw a few guys running back and forth between a car, and a small shed behind the château. He recognized the guy with the dreadlocks from earlier, who punched his shoulder. It still kinda hurt. What an odd guy.

He decided he didn't really care, and he was too tired to even think anymore, so he turned off the lights and plopped down on the bed. _Ahh, so soft_. He turned a few times before he was fast asleep.

* * *

><p><em>BOOM!<em>

Aoba was awoken in the middle of the night. _Again_. Still being half asleep, he pulled the covers over his head and shut any noise out of his head. _Seriously, what is it with this place and sounds in the middle of the night?_

* * *

><p><em>Hope you liked that chapter, please review and tell me if you did ^^ I know, it was pretty long; I DID have my doubts wether to split it into two stories, but Nah. Please tell if if you want one big chapter or a lot of small ones, because they tend to get longer O.o Byyyeeee<em>


	5. Chapter 5

The Intimacy Institution

* * *

><p><em>Merry Christmas, everybody! I'm sooooo sorry I haven't been able to upload, but I just got through a series of stupid tests up to the holidays, and I just hated that I didn't have time to write. Gomennnn~ It's a long chapter this time though, which I've heard you like, so I'll keep them long whenever I write too much. I'll try my best to be faster at uploading in the future, so enjoy the chapter.<em>

* * *

><p>Chapter 5<p>

Curled up in a small ball in the middle of the bed, Aoba snored soundly in a deep slumber. If it hadn't been for the loud ringtone on his coil, he probably wouldn't have heard it at all. It beeped loudly, the only thing that could really get him up in the morning. He groaned loudly and turned around to reach for his coil on the bed stand, and pressed the off-button hard. He sighed.

"Today's the big day, huh?" he mumbled to himself. He sat up and scratched his eyes. He grabbed his coil and looked at it. A message had been sent to him overnight, but he didn't bother reading it at the moment. He jumped out of bed a tad more energetic than he had anticipated, and found his clothes he'd put out the night before. He pulled the gray shirt over his head, slipped into a comfortable pair of sweat pants and found a matching blue jacket. He had to say: this place's sense of fashion was spot on.

He pulled his bag over his shoulder, and felt his growling stomach. He was so hungry, and couldn't wait to taste some of that wonderful food again. As he was leaving his room, he looked at his messages on his coil. There was the one from yesterday; it was labeled "Schedule". Then there also was a new one with the label "IMPORTANT". He thought that the institution probably wouldn't send out those kinds of mails if they weren't serious, but on the other hand it was well organized, so what on earth could go wrong?

He decided to read his schedule as he walked to the cafeteria. Hopefully he'd bump into Ren, Sly and Koujaku on the way. He didn't dare to hope for Mizuki, since he seemed like he was too busy for them. But it was okay, since he liked the small quartet they'd formed. As far as he could read, none of the classes he was going to have would be with either of them, since they were all on 4 different routes. He kept his head high, hoping to meet new friends instead. That weird gasmask guy said he was on the same route, right..?

A little guy, looking around 17 with the reddest hair Aoba'd ever seen in his life, was running around on one of the floors, as if he didn't know where to go. He looked almost panicked.

"Hey, you Blue, what are you doing here?" he asked with the most annoying voice imaginable.

"I, uhm, I'm on my way to the cafeteria," he stammered a bit. That was pretty normal, wasn't it?

"Dude, haven't you seen downstairs?" he asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Aoba was about to say no, when the red-haired kid ran off, probably back to the homosexual floor.

Now when Aoba thought about it, it _was_ kind of odd that he hadn't really seen anybody else on his way. He was starting to think that he'd gotten himself lost in the big château, until he turned the corner that led to the beautiful main hall where…

He stopped himself. "What is..?"

The first thing Aoba noticed was the smell: it smelled as if a million fireworks had gone off right in the middle of the hall. And it looked that way too.

Right in front of the door was a huge crater that took up almost half of the space in the room. It was about 4 feet deep and twice the size across. The lovely marble floor had been blown away, and was now either burnt off or scattered around the room. It was a wild sight.

Probably all the attendants to the institution were now gathered around the big hole to get a closer look. They blocked the way to the cafeteria, so Aoba couldn't even just keep going. How could this have happened?

"If I may have your attention, everybody," a familiar voice said, and everybody's eyes directed themselves towards Toue who stood on the top of the stairs. His green plaid suit was fit perfectly onto his broad shoulders, but his facial expression looked like he hadn't slept at all. Which he probably hadn't.

"Please, everybody remain calm. As you all can see right now, there is a small crater in our lovely marble floor," The crowd nodded.

"Well, I can assure you that everything is in perfect order. It was merely a test of the floor's durability. If it hasn't been for the modified marble, the crater would have been much bigger. Sorry for the unannounced disruption. Now, please continue your day without worries," Toue bowed slightly and walked back to his office without a word.

The background noise of people talking and walking now slowly came back, and little by little people ignored the crater and went around it to get to the cafeteria. Aoba sighed, not really able to comprehend the last few minutes.

"Aoba!" He turned around and saw Ren wave at him. He was relieved to find someone he knew to talk about it.

"What's with that crater?" Aoba asked. Ren took another look at it.

"Well, Toue said that it only was a test, but that would probably be announced at first, not to mention that it wouldn't be without warning and in the middle of the night,"

"You're right. It _is_ pretty suspicious…" Aoba scratched his chin trying to remember something, but he was too hungry to think clearly.

"Why don't we go find the others so we can eat together?" Ren asked, and Aoba nodded. They walked together in a big circle around the crater.

* * *

><p>"Man, that surely didn't happen last year," Koujaku stated. "But I did have a feeling that it would be different this year,"<p>

"How so?" asked Ren before taking another bite of his eggs with beans.

"Well, Aoba is here too this year, which is great," he pointed in Aoba's direction, and he nodded in return.

"But also because Toue increased the price of the stay considerably in the last minute, which is odd. Why would he suddenly need the extra cash?"

Aoba leaned back. He didn't have to pay a single coin to stay here, but was invited personally. For advertisement. Not that he complained about it, but it seemed like there were a lot of other people who maybe would have gotten more from it than himself. So he wondered why exactly _he_ was chosen for this.

"Maybe he needed to hire some hot new teachers or extras we can "practice" on," Sly added, grinning. The rest of the table shook their heads and let Sly finish his jokes.

"Maybe he needed a fixer-upper on his office. Or his wife… hahaha!"

When he was done, his natural face returned, and he got a more serious expression.

"But really, he said he needed to check if the floors were secure. Why would they need to be? This is just a school for dating for Christ's sake," he pondered.

"Well, you right about something," said Aoba. "He's up to something.

After eating the meal, their ways parted: Koujaku went with the people from the Hetero route, Ren with the Homo route, Sly with the A-route, and Aoba was left to go with the Bi route. He checked his coil one more time, assuring himself of where to go to form here.

* * *

><p>"Ah, here it is," Aoba stood outside the door to the classroom. He didn't see many others, but he was early, so it wasn't that unusual. He opened the door slowly, and inside was a circle of chairs, a blackboard, a projector and some cushions in the corner. In the chairs sat a few people already, two pretty girls chatting with each other, and a guy with short blonde hair. By the blackboard stood a mid-aged woman who looked like your average art teacher.<p>

"Ah, welcome," she turned around and took a good look at him through her glasses. "You must be Aoba-san," she concluded.

"Yes, I am. How did you know?" he asked, honestly curious as to if he already had rumors about him.

"Toue-san told me about you, and I also got a list of names with matching faces," she explained like it was obvious.

"I see," answered Aoba hesitantly, mostly to be nice. Although he didn't remember having any photos of him taken. He took a seat next to the single guy in the room. As he did, a few other people entered the room, and after being greeted they sat down, and the empty seats were slowly filled out.

"Hey, you," Aoba felt an elbow to his side, and turned to his right. The guy sat and tried to catch his attention. With a smirk he opened his mouth and spoke:

"You're on the right route. It'd be a shame if only one gender group got to fight over you," His voice came out sweet as honey, and Aoba almost thought he saw him lick his lips.

"I, uhm, thanks..?" He was far from sure how to answer, and just tried facing the other way. He could still feel the guy's eyes on him, weighing him from top to toe with his mere sight, but he didn't want to think about it. He'd hopefully stop soon enough.

"Good mooooooorning, everybody!" a joyful voice sang through the room at 9:55. It was awfully familiar, where'd heard it before? Eh-?!

"Oh, Master!" the voice called out again, and Aoba now knew who it was. It was that guy with the gasmask.

"Hi again, uhm…?"

"It's Clear,"

"Then hi, Clear," Aoba greeted properly. Clear clapped his hands happily together.

"I'm so glad that we're on the same route, Master! Then we can spend a lot of time together, isn't that great?"

"I guess, but, uhm…" This was something he'd wondered for a while now. "Why do you keep calling me Master?"

"Why I keep calling you Master?" Aoba nodded.

"Because Master is Master, that's why!" He smiled a content smile, but Aoba honestly didn't know what to answer at this point.

"So, let's begin!" the educator then said, and Clear took the first empty seat, a few ones from Aoba, and sat down. The teacher sat down on the last empty seat when everyone was there.

"My name is Laura, and I run this class, which is called "meeting and greeting". Here you'll learn how to introduce yourselves in an open way that makes you seem more attractive to other people, even to those whom you don't plan to have a sexual relation with," Aoba pricked up his ears.

"When you're done here, you'll be socially educated, and you won't have to worry about being awkward anymore," Aoba thought that actually sounded interesting. He hadn't been able to get a date for a long time, and maybe that was the problem. The next 30 minutes was spent on Laura speaking about the other things about the course.

"I will be teaching you a number of different techniques that you can practice," and so on.

"But now, I'd like for you all to know each other a little better, since we're going to be spending a lot of time with each other on a more intimate level," she began. She almost made it sound like they were going to be together forever, so dramatic.

She handed a small blue ball to a random person in the circle, and made them introduce themselves. Their name, age, occupation, and why they'd chosen to come to The Intimacy Institution, and why they chose the bisexual route. The first couple of people said things like "I wanted to try something new" or "I had nothing else to do". Then it came to Clear.

"Oh, I stay here all the time. But this time Master showed up, and it made everything so much better!" he rejoiced in his excited way. Honestly, where did he get his energy from? Aoba's cheeks flushed a deep red when everyone's eyes went to him.

A few more people were in between Clear and then the guy next to Aoba. He juggled the ball around for a second before talking.

"I'm Ryuuhou, I'm 29 years old and I'm a tattoo artist," he said confidently. Laura smiled, apparently glad that he wasn't a nervous type. "Tell us, Ryuuhou-san, why have you chosen to come here?" He smirked.

"Well, it's obviously not because I lacked human skills," he took a moment to giggle lowly. "I've come partly on work affairs, and also because you might need someone like me in this place," The rest of the class was silent. He spoke as if he owned the place.

"I chose the bi-route because, well," Aoba jumped when he felt a hand on his thigh, and began to sweat. "All kinds of company are fine to me," he finished, his voice laced with a weird lust. Some of the people in the circle looked like they were about to faint when they saw how unexpectedly sexy he was. One girl even had a nosebleed. Aoba couldn't believe it.

"Well, I think it's my turn," he interrupted, and Ryuuhou handed him the ball and took his hand off his thigh. _Phew_.

"Well then, hello. I'm Aoba Seragaki, I'm 23 years old, and I normally work in a junk shop called Heibon. I was invited here, so that's really the reason why I'm here in the first place," he paused for a moment to look at the others who looked at him. Then it hit him. They were all pretty attractive. Not just to him, but they were generally handsome.

"Keep going!" Laura urged him on, and he was snapped out of his thoughts. "Why did you choose this route?"

"Oh right, uhm…" he thought about it for a moment. He couldn't just tell him that he was there on accident, could he? That it wasn't his decision to be on the bi-route, but simply because his preferred route was full, so he had to switch. No, he needed to make something up. After all, it wasn't like he'd have to do something he didn't want to. Such as kissing a stranger…

"I, uhm, am new to the bisexual community, and I figured that it'd be best to join a route where I can learn to be myself," _That's it, they'll buy that_, he thought. "But actually… I'm not really sure,"

"Oh, I see, Aoba-san! Then let me help you," Laura began and rose from her seat. Aoba thought she was going to get something in her desk by the black board, but instead she picks two random people from the circle out, a man and a woman. She led them to Aoba.

"Now, kiss him," she said and smiled.

"EH-?!" Aoba jumped again and felt his heart race. No way, no way…

The girl, a pretty, tall blonde with green eyes, bend down to his face and kissed him gently. He struggled not to move away, but just let it happen. _I mean, the teacher knows best… right? _It felt nice and soft, but Aoba wasn't sure if it was because his heart almost leapt out of his chest, or because it was his first kiss in months.

Next was the man, half long dark hair that hung around his shoulders. He was introduced as one of the first, and his name was Kou. He bowed down to Aoba without hesitation and kissed his lips softly and warmly. Aoba felt like all the air in his lungs sept out, but without noticing he pursed his lips ever so slightly and met the kiss.

"Nice," Kou said when he pulled away. It didn't look like he was flirting with him, not like Ryuuhou did, but more like he wanted to boost his self-esteem. Seemed like a weird way to do it, though.

The two went back to their seats and the rest of the crowd seemed unsure whether to clap or not. _Why would you even clap..?!_

Aoba was almost in shock. Did that just really happen? Laura now stared at him, eagerly waiting for a response.

"Well, I…" Aoba was seriously at a loss for words this time.

"Hey, leave Master alone! He'll decide for himself, won't you, Master?" Clear had hopped right up from his seat and now stood between Laura and Aoba. She apologized quickly and sat back down, with no apparent change in her mood. All Aoba could do was send Clear a look with a mix of guilt and gratitude. Clear smiled back and sat down again, glad to be able to help.

The rest of the names in the circle were introduced, and the last 15 minutes went with small talking to get to know each other better (even though Aoba would say he knew more than 2 now very personally). He even got to talk with Kou and the girl, who apologized too, but Aoba, who now could speak again, said it was fine now. After all it _was_ his first kisses in months, so that one of them came from another guy now didn't matter that much. Soon after, the lunch bell rang.

* * *

><p>"She WHAT?!"<p>

"That's right. She made two strangers go up and kiss me so I could 'come to terms with my sexuality'," Aoba replied to Koujaku at lunch. Ren's mouth stood wide open, but Sly couldn't stop laughing.

"That is so great, haha!" Sly struggled to breathe, but Koujaku was starting to get angry.

"Why do you think that's so funny? Aoba's not gay, try having a dude come up to you and just kiss you right then and there?!"

"Hehe, I'm pan, so I don't care,"

"You..!" Koujaku was getting pissed off, Sly kept laughing, and Aoba and Ren exchanged looks. _Those two._

"Excuse me, Master?" Aoba heard that familiar voice, and turned around to see Clear standing on the other side of the table with a tray of food. He looked a little down compared to his usual energetic self.

"Hey Clear," Aoba wanted to be nice to him. After all, he did save him from that awkward situation back there. "Want to sit with us?"

"I'd love to!" His face lit back up, and he sat down next to Ren. "I'm Clear, nice to meet you~," The others introduced themselves, and no one else than Koujaku seemed bothered. Aoba could almost tell that he was thinking "that gasmask guy…".

Clear turned out to be good company at the table, always smiling and lighting up the mood with a funny story. Eventually even Koujaku liked having him around. Aoba thought he would take this opportunity to thank him for helping him earlier.

"You're welcome, Master. She did that last year too, and I thought I'd help you since you looked so lost," Aoba almost regretted bringing the subject back up, because he still was pretty embarrassed, but the others took it well. Clear told them a bit more about the teacher, that she wasn't all that bad, but actually was really good at her job.

They all finished eating and went to part ways again. Clear and Aoba decided to go together to the next class, which looked to be something about clothes.

* * *

><p>"HellooOOOoo, everyone!" The teacher greeted the crowd with a song as he hopped halfway across the room in an elegant pirouette. Everyone stood speechless as he landed on one foot and bowed.<p>

"My name is Wilson and I'll be your fashion teacher, isn't that just exciting?" he asked enthusiastically. The only person to answer was Clear.

"Yes!" he shouted. Aoba figured that being here for a long time, he knew how to handle this teacher, or whatever the hell he was. He couldn't help but wonder how he had the money to be here all the time, and why…

"So now, sit down everyone, sit down. Children of the Earth, I am going to teach you a little about dressing for success!" Aoba almost cringed at how flamboyant he was. Not that he had anything against him, at least he didn't make students kiss each other, but it was kind of hard to understand him the way he lisped.

He started the class by talking about what he was wearing himself, a shiny blue vest and black sweatpants. He told them that that was something he felt comfortable in, and that it also expressed who he was. _No doubt about that_. Then they took a round of what the crowd would normally wear, and they made a list of favorite clothing accessories. At 3 PM they were allowed to go for the day.

"Now what do we do?" Aoba asked Clear as they were leaving the classroom.

"Now we can just do what we want to until tomorrow. Most people hang in the entertainment rooms,"

"Then let's go there," Aoba followed Clear, who obviously knew more about the place than himself. They were going to meet up with Ren, Sly and Koujaku there, and Aoba just prayed that they wouldn't run into Ryuuhou…

* * *

><p><em>How do you feel about Ryuuhou being a sex god? I figured that it fit him well, also because, well, I like him and wanted him to have a part in the story. I also had a lot of trouble figuring some of the classes out, but they turned out mostly okay. Besides, that's not the important part...<em>  
><em>So yes, I love to hear from you guys, so please tell me what you think! I gladly take suggestions, so don't be shy. Until next time~<em>


End file.
